The house whisperer

'It'll tell you what needs to be done if you
listen,' says moving expert

To move a house, to move it without incident, start with
three or four basic rules.

First, do a walk-through of the house. At the walk-through,
the house "will talk to you if you listen to
it,'' as Jeff Kennedy, owner of Don Kennedy and
Sons House Moving, puts it.

"I ask the Lord to clear my head and listen to
it," he said. "It'll tell you what needs to
be done if you listen close enough, whether it's a Jim
Walter home or a 600-ton masonry building."

Kennedy has moved all kinds of homes since he became the
owner of the company that his grandfather Harry founded in
1945.

He has moved a 608-ton fraternity house at the University of
Alabama, a record for the heaviest structure to be relocated
in Alabama.

"It had 52 rooms in it," Kennedy said. "An
engineering professor made a bet with us that we'd
never get it off the ground. We moved it two blocks, and put
it down on a full basement without a crack."

He has moved the Clemens House, which is more than 170 years
old and on the National Register of Historic Places. In May
2004, Kennedy and Sons moved the 562-ton house from Clinton
Avenue to Pratt Avenue.

He has moved a 104-year-old home in Guntersville to the
opposite side of a Lake Guntersville peninsula, the first
time a house in Alabama was transported by barge. Much of
the move was made along railroad tracks.

In 2006 and 2008, the company received the Most Unusual Move
award from the International Association of Structural
Movers, competing with movers in America and foreign
countries.

To make these moves and others, said Kennedy, the movers must do the walk-through, look at the thickness of the materials, gather facts about the weight and the balance of the building, and make computer printouts of models of the building....

The house whisperer

'It'll tell you what needs to be done if you
listen,' says moving expert

To move a house, to move it without incident, start with
three or four basic rules.

First, do a walk-through of the house. At the walk-through,
the house "will talk to you if you listen to
it,'' as Jeff Kennedy, owner of Don Kennedy and
Sons House Moving, puts it.

"I ask the Lord to clear my head and listen to
it," he said. "It'll tell you what needs to
be done if you listen close enough, whether it's a Jim
Walter home or a 600-ton masonry building."

Kennedy has moved all kinds of homes since he became the
owner of the company that his grandfather Harry founded in
1945.

He has moved a 608-ton fraternity house at the University of
Alabama, a record for the heaviest structure to be relocated
in Alabama.

"It had 52 rooms in it," Kennedy said. "An
engineering professor made a bet with us that we'd
never get it off the ground. We moved it two blocks, and put
it down on a full basement without a crack."

He has moved the Clemens House, which is more than 170 years
old and on the National Register of Historic Places. In May
2004, Kennedy and Sons moved the 562-ton house from Clinton
Avenue to Pratt Avenue.

He has moved a 104-year-old home in Guntersville to the
opposite side of a Lake Guntersville peninsula, the first
time a house in Alabama was transported by barge. Much of
the move was made along railroad tracks.

In 2006 and 2008, the company received the Most Unusual Move
award from the International Association of Structural
Movers, competing with movers in America and foreign
countries.

To make these moves and others, said Kennedy, the movers must do the walk-through, look at the thickness of the materials, gather facts about the weight and the balance of the building, and make computer printouts of models of the building....